Leadership Score [3.5]

[AdamSmasher]

Are there any items or feats out there that give you a bonus to your leadership score? I need to offset my charisma penalty and attract some more followers.

[Soranar]

crystalkeep has a good amount of leadership feats that you can take

noble born, for example , must be taken at level 1 and gives you a bonus to leadership

[Glimbur]

Work the modifiers. You're richer than a small nation, so you can afford to be "generous" and fairness is simply good image control. There's a +1. You'd better have a special power, pay bards to sing about it for another +1. You do quests, right? At least some of them sound pretty cool, right? Pay bards to tell those stories to get great renown for another +2.

Build a mansion (you know you want one anyway) for another +2, but it's a bit pricier than the other approaches.

As for the negative modifiers... let's just say that only information that gets out can harm you.

[Hawriel]

There are alot of RP elements that can fill in that leadership table. I counted all of the hero type stuff my character did and it added up to about 10 points off the chart. Thats befor level and cha bonus.

[Darrin]

Are there any items or feats out there that give you a bonus to your leadership score? I need to offset my charisma penalty and attract some more followers.

There's an orc-only feat, Might Makes Right, in one of the FR books... Races of Faerun, I think? Add your Str bonus to your leadership score.

[OldTrees]

Undead Leadership feat
Prereq: Know Religion 1 rank, 6+ ECL, nongood
gain leadership effects again and gain a +2 bonus to both (all followers are now necropolitians)

Improved Cohort Feat
+1 leadership
max cohort level = your ECL-1
now convince (RP) your cohort to take Undead Leadership and Leadership

Extra Followers Feat
x2 followers
+1 leadership

Assemble the Horde Feat
Prereq: 6+ ECL, Leadership Score > level + 4 [hard for you to qualify for]
Gain an extra 1st level follower for each follower above 1st level
+1 leadership

Natural Leader Feat
+2 leadership

Improved Leadership Feat
Prereq: Cha 15
+2 leadership

Cloak of Charisma +2/+4/+6 Item 4K/16K/36K gp
+1/+2/+3 leadership

[Viletta Vadim]

There's an orc-only feat, Might Makes Right, in one of the FR books... Races of Faerun, I think? Add your Str bonus to your leadership score.

Now if you want to be really, really, ridiculously cheesy, find some source of immortality, take a level of Cancer Mage for immunity to all ill effects of disease, contract festering anger, then sit in some timeless plane for an eon or twelve until you have an arbitrarily high strength score fueling your Leadership.

The other really, really, ridiculously cheesy method? Improved Psicrystal advances your psicrystal's abilities by one level. That includes hit die, effectively your psicrystal's level. Take Improved Psicrystal three times, then have your psicrystal take Leadership and it can have a cohort one level higher than you are. That cohort can take Improved Psicrystal three times and have her psicrystal take leadership to get a cohort two levels higher than you are. Loop ad infinitum.

Neither of these are meant for actual play, of course. But talk with your DM about removing the orc-only restriction from Might Makes Right, or perhaps into inventing some other feat that changes the stat used to determine your Leadership score. Some sort of Sage Ruler feat to key it off of wisdom, perhaps?

[Pyro_Azer]

There is also an item from stormwrack (AFB right now) that grants +5 to leadership score.

[Tavar]

Note that Regular Leadership doesn't give any bonuses past Leadership score 25. To get the uncapped version, you need to take Epic Leadership, which in addition to being an epic feat requires a Cha of 25 and a Leadership score of 25. Oh, and the feat Leadership, of course.

[Foryn Gilnith]

There is also an item from stormwrack (AFB right now) that grants +5 to leadership score.

Admiral's Bicorne. For (monstrous) humanoids, grants a +5 bonus on Profession (sailor) and Charisma-based checks. And apparently Leadership is a Charisma-based check.

[Viletta Vadim]

Admiral's Bicorne. For (monstrous) humanoids, grants a +5 bonus on Profession (sailor) and Charisma-based checks. And apparently Leadership is a Charisma-based check.

Er... Leadership isn't a check at all, though.

[Foryn Gilnith]

A humanoid or monstrous humanoid who dons the admiral’s bicorne gains a +5 bonus on Profession (sailor) checks and all Charisma-based checks (including Leadership) as long as it is worn.

Yes, I'm incredulous too.

[Akal Saris]

Don't forget the Breastplate of Command from the PHB: +2 competence to Leadership just for wearing it (and 25,000gp, ouch!).

For fun, albeit a bit off-topic, I actually made a few builds using the feats mentioned above that get 24 or 25 leadership at 6th level, so you'd have a 6th level character with a 4th level cohort and a pair of 6th level followers. It's quite tricky to pull off and the main character isn't relatively strong, however, so it's more of a thought exercise than anything particularly broken.

Happily, this is a case where optimization and fluff go well together. How awesome is it that the best classes to make an orc warlord are marshal, barbarian, and orc paragon? Or that a great undead leader can be made with a paragon of humanity who has fallen to necromancy, skilled in both sorcery and leadership?

Anyhow, I'm proud of the characters, so I'll show them off... ^^;;

Golfimbul, Orcish Warlord (Uses Might Makes Right)

Spoiler

Show

Water Orc Barbarian 2/Orc Paragon 3/Marshal 1 = 24 leadership at 6th (technically 26 in a rage)
Follow with another level of a +1 BAB class and then enter Orc Warlord!

Tricks: Basically just pumps Cha and Str a bunch, and takes Skill Focus (Diplomacy) at low levels so he can take a different bonus warlord feat at 6th (Might Makes Right - the warlord class states you can do this). Actually has a very good trip attack as well, thanks to the marshal aura.

Books:
Mini's HB (Marshal)
Races of Faerun (Orc Warlord) (Req's Orc, BAB +5, nongood, intimidate 8, ride 5, survival 5, barbarian rage, feats: might makes right)
Player's Guide to Faerun
UA: water orcs, orc paragon

32 PB
Str 24 (26 with gauntlets)
Dex 8
Con 10
Int 6
Wis 6
Cha 16 (18 with periapt)

BAB: +5
Trip (in a rage w/a MW weapon): +14 touch, +19 to the check, for 1d10+12 damage.

Variants: Lion totem barbarian and Wolf totem barbarian for pounce and improved trip

Feats:
1st: Open feat! I'd take Extra Rage
2nd bonus: Improved Trip
3rd: Skill Focus: Diplomacy
6th: Leadership
6th bonus: Might Makes Right (from Marshal)
Later:
9th: Extra Followers (doubles followers, +1 to leadership) - with this and the orc warlord x3 bonus, you'd have 6x the normal number of orcs in your horde!

Aura: Art of War (Charisma Bonus on trip, disarm, and sunder checks)

Skills:
Intimidate 9 ranks
Survival 5 ranks
Ride 5 ranks
Diplomacy 4 ranks

Items:
Gauntlets of Strength 4k
Periapt of Wisdom 4k
Keep for 4k?
Remaining gear for 1k?

Leadership:
+8 Str
+4 Cha
+6 level
+2 renown
+2 keep
+1 special power
+1 fairness and generosity
= 24 (higher in a rage or with better items or at 7th)

Morgoth, Lord of the Undead (Uses Undead Leadership)

Spoiler

Show

(Venerable Necropolitan) Human Paragon 3/Sorcerer 2/Marshal 1

Build progression: Human Paragon 1/Sorcerer 1/Human Paragon +2/Sorcerer +1/Marshal 1
Note: losing one's humanity (becoming undead, polymorph, law school) doesn't make you lose the benefits of a racial paragon class.

Feats:
1st: Skill Focus (Diplomacy)
1st bonus (open, I'd grab Able Learner)
3rd bonus (open, I'd grab Versatile Spellcaster)
3rd (Ecclesiarch, EBCS)
6th (Undead Leadership)
6th bonus marshal: Natural Leader (Heroes of Battle)

Leadership:
+8 Cha (4 base, 1 cloak, 1 from human paragon, 1.5+.5=2 from venerable and 4th level)
+6 level
+2 ecclesiarch
+2 natural leader
+2 undead leadership
+2 renown
+2 keep
+1 special power
+1 fairness and generosity
= 26

[Milskidasith]

There's an item from... I can't remember the book, but rod of command or something that's a +5 bonus of the same type the breastplate is, so you can skip the breastplate.

[Eldariel]

Er... Leadership isn't a check at all, though.

That's what the item says. Blame the writers. In Stormwrack IIRC.